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Introduction

F.A.Korentsvit The affects of the cold war on Russian economy As we know now the cold war and the race of super- powers certainly had an influence on the Russian economy. Different historians argue a different time period for the cold war. Some of them say that the cold war has its roots in the causes of the first world war. Nevertheless for this essay it will be assumed the most common dates, with the start of the cold war in 1945. There were several reason and parties that caused the cold war to start. For example you could name the west's general fear of communism, and the soviet union's constant fear of being attacked. Now the question occurs, was the Cold War the ultimate reason that made the Russian economy develop the way it did, and furthermore cause severe poverty ? From my point of view the Cold War was the dominating fact in terms of development and investments, which as already mentioned were directly followed poverty through out the whole country. In the year 1945 Russian economy had recovered from the low point in 1942, though it was still seriously damaged from the war. At that time most of western Russia was wrecked. The state Committee of defence had remained in full power until the regular governmental organs restored on September 1945. ...read more.

Middle

8 In fact this more than optimistic plan of outputs for the year 1950 was reached and furthermore greater outputs than the plan had stated were achieved. While heavy industry and rearmament were more than recovering and promoted by the last five-year plan, only very insignificant improvements were planned for the light industry, such as food. And even those expectations were not archived in a single sector, 9 that affected Russia's population in terms of living standards most. This first totally peaceful year 1946 proved to be a very difficult one. Severe droughts caused the slight improvements in outputs of agricultural products to shrink again. Many people and especially peasants in Ukraine were starving to death 10 as very few investments were made into the light industry sector which were immediate results of the relation between investments into heavy industry and into light industry was more and more getting out of balance. The first peaceful time in years had not brought confidence and the will of rebuilding the country itself but it had caused much more the feeling of danger in Stalin his fellowship and later in Khrushchev. Since the war had ended all Russian economy was focused on rearmament. Huge projects of development of new weapons of mass destruction were launched. ...read more.

Conclusion

It was much more the ideological ideas of Soviet leaders. It was Russian communist history and the Soviet Union's leaders love towards the nation rather than towards their people that decided Russian economic development. These ideological ideas of the great Soviet Union existed before the war remain now and will very like be there for the next fifty years as well. Footnotes: 1) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, , London ,1969, p. 295 2) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, London ,1969, p.296 3) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, London ,1969, p.298 4) Stalin " Autobiography" , Richard Luri, , Moscow, 1999, p. 127 5) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, London ,1969, p.297 6) Memories of an unreal ambassador, Alexander Bovin, Moscow, 2000 , p. 196 7) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, London ,1969, p.297 8) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, London ,1969, p.298 9) An economic History of the USSR, Alec Nove, London ,1969, p.298 10) Letters of relatives , years from 1938 -1950 11) " Sawerscheno Secretno", Henrich Borovik, Moscow, 2003 Nr. 12 12) Memories of an unreal ambassador, Alexander Bovin, Moscow, 2000 , p. 234 13) Historical Documents, , Moscow, " Kitchen Debate ", Moscow, July 24, 1959, http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/14/documents/debate/ 14) Historical Documents, , Moscow, " Kitchen Debate ", Moscow, July 24, 1959, http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/14/documents/debate/ ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 section.